Javascript split() not working in IE

Question

Lets say I have a textarea with this text:

first line some text.
second line, other text. next line will be empty.
(empty line)
(empty line)
last line here

As you can see, lines 3 and 4 are empty (\n). I need to get the exact lines structure (with empty lines as well) and convert it to an array. Each line is an element of the array. This is my current code:

var lines = $('#q').val().split(/\n/);
alert(lines.length); //using alert() because IE doesn't support console.log()
var texts = [];
for(i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
    texts.push($.trim(encodeURIComponent(lines[i])));
}

It works great on all browsers, except IE. For some reason, the split() function ignores empty lines (3 and 4) in IE. Because of that, they are never passed into the array :s

Solution by Squeegy in the comments

Replace split(/\n/) with split("\n") - damn you IE!

possible duplicate of [JavaScript: split doesn't work in IE?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1453521/javascript-split-doesnt-work-in-ie) — Wayne, Dec 14 '11 at 21:21
It was a totally random guess, hoenstly. Which is why it wasn't an answer. So I can't explain why, but perhaps someone else can and you can accept that answer. — Alex Wayne, Dec 14 '11 at 21:23

canon · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-01T14:52:55.713

7

The regex split is behaving strangely in IE8 and lower. Use a string comparison instead and it seems to work (fiddle)

testText.split("\n")

rather than

testText.split(/\n/)

[Edit] From Steven Levithan's Blog:

Internet Explorer excludes almost all empty values from the resulting array (e.g., when two delimiters appear next to each other in the data, or when a delimiter appears at the start or end of the data)

edited Jun 01 '12 at 14:52

answered Dec 14 '11 at 21:22

canon

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This is a good answer as my question was on the periphery of the OP. I want empty elements and they were not there in IE8. This resolved my issue. FWIW [x.split(/delimiter/)] shows empty elements in IE9 forward. – Joe Johnston Sep 05 '17 at 15:49

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

2

Possible duplicate of JavaScript: split doesn't work in IE? ? Internet Explorer excludes almost all empty values from the resulting array (e.g., when two delimiters appear next to each other in the data, or when a delimiter appears at the start or end of the data).

edited May 23 '17 at 12:10

Community

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answered Dec 14 '11 at 21:19

Damen TheSifter

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do you know any workarounds for the same scenario and the .test() function? e.g.: /\n/.test(string) – Andres SK Dec 14 '11 at 21:58

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 14 '11 at 21:45

I see the same screwy behavior in IE with .split() and new lines. You can use your own split function to control it more closely:

function mySplit(str, ch) {
    var pos, start = 0, result = [];
    while ((pos = str.indexOf(ch, start)) != -1) {
        result.push(str.substring(start, pos));
        start = pos + 1;
    }
    result.push(str.substr(start));
    return(result);    
}

Working example here: http://jsfiddle.net/jfriend00/xQTNZ/.

@andufo - just `str.indexOf("\n") != -1` – jfriend00 Dec 14 '11 at 22:29 — jfriend00, Dec 14 '11 at 22:29

Javascript split() not working in IE

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